How AWS is Empowering Procurement Processes

State agencies across the US regularly innovate on behalf of the people they serve.

They are ably assisted by AWS, which works with procurement teams within state departments to help them accelerate processes and maintain visibility over rapidly-implemented workloads.

Maintaining visibility and oversight of rapidly implemented workloads

In a blog post on its website, leaders from AWS reveal that a common concern when it comes to accelerated innovation in procurement is that state agencies may experience reduced visibility and oversight of workloads and implementations.

When states begin using AWS solutions, expand their AWS footprint or embark on transformational efforts, AWS functions as an account management service that can consolidate multiple AWS accounts into a central program – providing visibility across all AWS workloads, including those implemented at a rapid pace. 

The number of accounts can range from just a few to several hundred, but managing these accounts through AWS Organisations helps to maintain alignment with security, governance, billing and operational requirements.

Meanwhile, a landing zone serves as a well-architected, multi-account AWS environment that is scalable and secure.

This serves as a launching point, where workloads and applications can be deployed with confidence in their security and infrastructure.

Services like the AWS Control Tower can orchestrate the environment or users can work with a partner to build a custom landing zone. Once a landing zone is set up, states can separate business workloads, including software subscribed to on AWS Marketplace, across organisational units (OUs).

Through the use of a landing zone and AWS Organisations, states can accelerate innovation by providing flexibility within the boundaries identified by the state, enabling agency application development teams to experiment while maintaining security and compliance requirements for the environments.

How health services take advantage of AWS

The North Carolina legislature tasked the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) with launching a managed care model with encounter processing capability within 12 months.

The DHHS wanted to implement a solution rapidly and knew that a traditional procurement strategy would not meet the tight deadline. Instead, the team decided to develop the new Encounter Processing System (EPS) internally and deploy it in the cloud.

As they looked to work within this tight timeframe, North Carolina selected a direct Enterprise Agreement (EA) with AWS to accelerate innovation, gain greater control of their projects and engage with AWS for a more seamless and results-driven collaboration.

Under the EA, North Carolina could take advantage of AWS Services in addition to AWS Professional Services.

Through AWS and its services, the IT division was empowered the design of an effective cloud infrastructure for the EPS application. In addition to the IT team and health and human services subject matter experts, the Amazon Managed Services team and the AWS account team helped the department with EPS design and deployment in the AWS Cloud. Through the combined efforts of the North Carolina and AWS teams, the full EPS launched by the deadline.

Sharing the aforementioned blog post to her LinkedIn profile, Danielle Hinz, Executive Government Advisor for AWS, said: “I hear too often that procurement is a barrier to innovation, but it doesn't have to be like that.

“My colleagues and I just captured the State of North Carolina's Department of Health & Human Services' story highlighting how they've been able to move fast on their digital transformation journey.”

Rapid innovation through cooperative purchasing

If an EA isn’t an option, cooperative purchasing agreements are an alternative to help states quickly and efficiently innovate with AWS.

There are several options to consider:

• National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) ValuePoint Cloud Solutions contract: Under this purchasing agreement, state governments can purchase cloud services to establish their own infrastructure. The NASPO agreements for Medicaid Enterprise Systems Provider Services, Claims Processing and Management Services and Third Party Liability modules also offer options for faster, less administratively-burdensome procurement through AWS Partners.
• Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) Cooperative Contracts Program:  The DIR offers a range of IT-related products and services to government entities within and outside of Texas. Out-of-state public entities can purchase through the DIR if an Interstate Cooperation Contract (ICC) is established. AWS has a variety of partner-held DIR contracts for cloud services. There are also many technology partner offerings built and run on AWS with DIR contracts for software and SaaS offerings.
• OMNIA Partners Public Sector: OMNIA offers public sector agencies various cooperative purchasing contract options for using AWS directly for cloud-based services. OMNIA is an AWS Partner and delivers solutions in AWS Marketplace.

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